Smart Forfour 2005 Review: Road Test
On top of the hip-hop heap since the day he hit the road, Jazz has been dethroned as the king of Smart's Forfour badass.
The funk factor starts with the name Forfour, which was chosen because the latest Smart is designed for four people.
This also works for the Fortwo, which launched the brand and has just been approved to park two cars in one space in many Australian cities because it is only three meters long.
Again, the sporty Smart is called a roadster. Whatever.
The Forfour's youthful approach is reflected in everything from the car's polycarbonate roof to the plastic doors and fabric-wrapped dashboard.
Design today is one of the most fashionable on the road and constantly attracts attention.
"Wow! What is this?" Annette asks at the prompt when she spots Forfour.
“It's different. I'm not sure if I like him, but he's definitely different, ”says Todd at a service station.
Forfour is just such a car.
It's for people who want to be seen, who want people to know they're different and who believe the Baby Benz brand has something for them.
But Forfour is not what it seems. In any case, not really.
It is the result of a joint development program with Mitsubishi Colt that includes everything from the engine to the underbody, and is assembled at the Nedcar plant in Holland.
But we drove a Colt, and Smart is completely different. It's livelier, nicer and, not surprisingly for the Benz brand, more expensive.
It's a lot more expensive to do this because the Forfour's starting price with the 23,900-litre engine is $1.3. One can approach $30,000 for a car with a 1.5-liter engine and some extra equipment. This is in a class where many cars cost less than $20,000, and even the top-end Jazz VTi-S costs $21,790.
Still, the price doesn't hurt sales, and DaimlerChrysler says Forfour is giving the Smart brand a big shot on the showroom floor.
Smarts sales rose 240 percent last month, from 20 vehicles in January 2004 to 68 this year.
It doesn't sound like much, but it shows that the brand is approaching the critical mass it needs in Australia.
It's useless to have good cars if no one sees them, but the Forfour does both very well.
The Australian Forfour is closer to the fully equipped model sold in Europe and has everything from air conditioning and a CD to 15-inch alloy wheels and power windows.
Smart was surprised by the response to the car, especially the popularity of the more expensive 1.5-litre version, and was forced to make a special trip to Germany to stock up on supplies.
“Everyone is pushing for a bigger engine,” says Smart spokesman Tony Andreevski.
“We thought people would be more price sensitive, so we ordered more 1.3-litre cars, but the opposite is also true.”
He also says the $1035 Softouch Plus semi-automatic manual transmission is also more popular than expected.
